From cybersecurity to skin care, these companies are backed by the US government's defense- and security-focused investment firms.

Where is this data coming from?

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US military and intelligence-affiliated research outfits have played a major role in the recent history of technology and innovation. DARPA or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, hatched ARPANET, based on the networking technologies that provided the foundation for the internet.

Given this role, we profiled 12 early- to mid stage tech startups that are backed by investment firms that are US government-affiliated and security-oriented.

All of the companies on our list raised money in or after 2015. None have raised a funding round beyond a Series C.

The organizations we looked at are DARPA, which commissions research for the US Department of Defense, In-Q-Tel — the investment arm of the U.S. intelligence community — and the lesser-known Arsenal Venture Partners.

Arsenal has managed OnPoint Technologies, a fund investing in venture businesses for the US Army (it was created as part of the Army Venture Capital Initiative in 2002 and announced in 2003). It is important to note that Arsenal Venture Partners also makes investments as a stand-alone entity, and these investments are not all defense- and security-related.

We include investments by Arsenal Venture Partners in the list below, due to the unique position of the firm as a manager of military-linked venture funds including OnPoint as well as MILCOM Technologies.

According to CB Insights data, in the last five years (since 2011), In-Q-Tel, DARPA, and Arsenal Venture Partners (including all its managed funds) have invested $1.3B across 137 deals (including grants, but excluding debt deals. 28% of those deals were in seed/series A rounds (early-stage) and 34% were Series B or C (mid-stage). Notably, In-Q-Tel does not always disclose its investments. Consequently the amount of dollars and deals is likely to be higher than reported.

The majority of the deals involving these firms over the time period were in the internet software and services industry. In-Q-Tel is the most active investor of the three firms.

Check out our list of selected companies below.

Research Briefing: Game Changing Startups of 2018

We’ll uncover and define the most bleeding-edge trends taking shape across the technology industry.

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1. Ayasdi

Ayasdi was developed by Stanford computational mathematicians. The company uses machine learning and other tech to extract knowledge from complex data sets. It works in industries including healthcare and financial services.

CounterTack offers cybersecurity solutions for enterprises, using big data for real-time endpoint detection and incident response. The company offers a flagship product called Digital DNA for memory forensics and behavioral analysis capabilities that help detect “zero-day” attacks, i.e. those attacking vulnerabilities that were previously unknown.

Anomali provides a platform for earlier detection and identification of adversaries in an organization’s network by correlating tens of millions of threat indicators against real time network activity logs and up to a year or more of forensic log data.

Select Investors: In-Q-Tel, Paladin Capital Group, Google Ventures

Latest Round Obtained: Series C

Total Disclosed Funding: $56M

4. Continuum Analytics

Continuum’s Python-based platform and consulting services are meant to empower organizations to analyze, manage, and visualize big data. The company is an active participant in Open Data Science — a movement that makes open source tools for data science, analytics and computation.

ProtectWise, another cybersecurity company on our list, that provides network protection with its cloud network DVR, a virtual “camera” in the cloud that records everything on the network — enabling the visualization of threats in real time.

Arctic Sand Technologies specializes in rapid power conversion semiconductors, based on technology developed at MIT. Using these chips, the company aims to create smaller, thinner, lighter and more power-efficient electronics.

Fuel3D sells a handheld 3D scanner that delivers high-resolution shape and color capture for a range of 3D modeling applications. The technology was developed at Oxford University.

Select Investors: In-Q-Tel, Chimera Partners, Parkwalk Advisors

Latest Round Obtained: Series A

Total Disclosed Funding: $11M

9. Phantom Cyber

Phantom Cyber automates enterprise security operations to help enterprises combat the rise in the volume of attacks, shortages in qualified personnel, and keep up with the growth in the diversity and complexity of IT security environments.

Select Investors: In-Q-Tel, Blackstone Group, Rein Capital

Latest Round Obtained: Series A

Total Disclosed Funding: $9.2M

10. Tribogenics

Based on a DARPA-funded initiative at UCLA, Tribogenics technology enables the use of portable X-rays in a variety of applications in mining, industrial, military and medical imaging industries. Nikon took a corporate minority stake in the company in February this year.

Select Investors: DARPA, Founders Fund, Flywheel Ventures

Latest Round Obtained: Series A

Total Disclosed Funding: $8.7M

11. Algorithmia

Algorithmia is an app store for algorithms, paired with cloud infrastructure on which to run them, with multiple offerings to help augment the work of algorithm creators, depending on their unique needs. This year, the company landed a deal to provide a private algorithm-sharing platform for the U.S. intelligence community.